ACC expansion: Stanford, Cal, SMU voted in, but future questions persist as conference realignment continues

Bill Bender

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ACC expansion: Stanford, Cal, SMU voted in, but future questions persist as conference realignment continues image

The Pac Four is no more. 

The ACC will add Stanford, Cal and SMU as part of the next head-scratching move of the 2023 realignment cycle. The move was approved 12-3. 

That leaves the Pac-12 with two schools – Oregon State and Washington State – and increases the ACC's membership to 17 schools with Notre Dame as a part-time member in football.

Of course, this latest move increases revenue for the member schools, gives at least short-term security for the television agreement with ESPN and gives the conference enough teams to keep a power conference seat along with the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC heading into the 12-team College Football Playoff. 

MORE: College Football predictions 2023: Conference champions, playoff teams, national title winner

Why did ACC add Cal, Stanford and SMU? 

The 2023 realignment cycle in college football was unprecedented with the parsing up of the Pac-12. The Big Ten – which grabbed UCLA and USC in 2022 – added Washington and Oregon. The Big 12 took Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. That left Cal, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State – which had all been in the Pac-12 together since 1918. Oregon State and Washington State are the last two Power 5 schools left without a conference. 

Is the ACC simply keeping pace with those other conferences? The Big Ten has 18 teams, and the Big 12 and SEC have 16 teams apiece. It's essentially now a Power Four model with the implosion of the Pac-12. 

This will be a revenue-generating move for the conference. Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger reports ACC administrators were shown the potential gains, and "the models show a financial boon of roughly $72 million in annual revenue for the conference. 

From a geographical standpoint, it doesn't make sense. From a television standpoint, it gives the ACC the opportunity to broadcast more games in late-night television windows with SMU, Cal and Stanford on ESPN. 

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How many schools are in the ACC in 2024? 

With the additions of Cal, Stanford and SMU, the conference now has 17 full-time football members. Notre Dame has a five-game arrangement with the conference – and whether that total will include the annual rivalry matchup with Stanford (which has been played every year but 2020 since 1997) – is still to be determined. 

ACC schools in 2024 

Boston College NC State
Cal Pitt
Clemson Stanford
Duke SMU
Florida State Syracuse
Georgia Tech Virginia
Louisville Virginia Tech
Miami Wake Forest
North Carolina  

That is seven private universities and 10 public universities – an interesting mix that now stretches through three time zones across distinct regions. From Boston to the Bay Area and Texas to Tobacco Road. 

That should make scheduling interesting because the ACC no longer has divisions and plays an eight-game schedule. How do you balance out the travel with Cal, Stanford and SMU? 

Will that be worth it for the member institutions? 

DECOURCY: Stanford, Cal, SMU bring nothing to the ACC table

How will ACC distribute revenue?

Yahoo Sports reports Stanford and Cal will be taking 30% revenue shares to start, and SMU, which played in the American Athletic Conference – will forego nine years of revenue. 

This is the new trend in realignment. Schools have become so desperate to keep a chair with the power conferences that they are willing to offer concessions. 

The additional revenue will reportedly be shared among the rest of the ACC schools and will be incentivized by athletic success. This, of course, is a perceived response to Florida State and Clemson. On Aug. 2, Florida State trustee Drew Weatherford – a former quarterback at the school – caused a stir when he said: “Unless something drastic changes on the revenue side at the ACC, it's not a matter of if we leave, it's a matter of how and when we leave.”

That was a hint at a potential challenge to ESPN's Grant of Rights deal with the ACC, which runs through 2036. Will the additional revenue created from the expansion be enough to keep Florida State and Clemson happy?

Those two schools have combined for five national championships since 1993 and are the only two full-time members to represent the ACC in the College Football Playoff. Notre Dame, of course, played in the ACC as a full member for one season in 2020 because of scheduling conflicts brought on by COVID-19. 

Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina were the schools that voted against the move. 

Will Notre Dame join the ACC in football? 

As long as the Irish have their current scheduling with the ACC, access to other rivals on their schedule, a television deal and a clear path to getting in the upcoming 12-team College Football Playoff, then the Irish are going to remain independent. It's that simple. 

Despite not being a full member of the ACC in football, the Irish get to vote as a full member. The five-game arrangement has been ongoing since 2014 and continues to benefit from their own television deal with NBC. 

Yet that power without being a full-time member – and the Irish's reported push to add Cal, Stanford and SMU – is another wrinkle to this round of expansion. 

"Notre Dame initiated us bringing on Stanford and Cal and continues to push, yet Notre Dame won't join the ACC as a full-time member," an ACC source told Action Network's Brett McMurphy on Aug. 10. "That doesn't make sense to us."

It will be interesting to see how Notre Dame's relationship with the ACC progresses with the expansion. The ACC remains an odd number of teams, which leaves that theoretical spot open for the Irish, but it's status quo for the time being. 

BENDER: Will college football be better in 2024 as opposed to 1984? A look at 40 years of realignment

Will Cal, Stanford and SMU be good fits in ACC?

McMurphy also reported a potential hint for the future of the realignment puzzle: 

It remains a numbers game. Does this give Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina – and perhaps other ACC schools – a potential out to a conference that offers more revenue in the future? Possibly, but that Grant of Rights deal remains and ESPN runs the SEC Network and ACC Network. It would make more sense for the television partners to work with those conferences to benefit each other, much like NBC is doing with its relationship between the Big Ten and Notre Dame. 

Under the 12-team CFP setup, the ACC also would have a clear shot at a guaranteed spot with its conference champion and a decent shot at one or two at-large bids per year. Why would Florida State and Clemson want to leave that setup – at least in the short term? 

The answer, of course, is that realignment does not make sense anymore. It's easy to envision a scenario where the Big Ten and SEC – the two dominant conferences in college football from a revenue standpoint – want more in the future with the onset of the expanded College Football Playoff.

Bill Bender

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Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.